Return to Messaline
Set before "Exit Wounds"
The TARDIS sighed. She'd wanted the Doctor to find his daughter, and he had, but it had all gone wrong. Now he believed her dead, had been given hope only to have it cruelly snatched away once more.
But the TARDIS knew. The TARDIS knew that the Doctor's Daughter lived. And she knew that one day their paths would cross again.
And the TARDIS knew that she would do as much as possible to make this happen.
The Doctor sat down by the console, sighing. He was thinking about Jenny. It had been quite a while since her death, but he still missed her. He'd been a father again, not been the last, had a daughter-and she'd been murdered. He couldn't stop himself from wishing that he'd stayed for her funeral. To say goodbye properly, rather then what he did do, when he thought she'd be alright due to being Gallifreyan. But there was no point in saying goodbye to the dead. They couldn't hear you.
Donna was sleeping, it being quite late at night, but the Doctor was wide awake. Dona hadn't understood how he felt, never having been a parent.
The Doctor sighed. He might as well go and see Jack, the TARDIS could probably do with refuelling anyway. It would only take a few minutes, but he might as well drop in on Jack. In fact Jack would murder him if he didn't!
As he set the coordinates for Cardiff, too depressed to laugh at the anticipation of Donna meeting Jack, he desperately wished for the millionth time since Jenny had died that she hadn't jumped in front of him and stopped the bullet from forcing him to regenerate. Regeneration would have been a zillion times better then Jenny's death.
Jack heard the engines of the TARDIS and ran out to meet the Doctor. He still didn't want to travel with the man, but he did wan to see him. They were friends, after all.
And so Jack raced out, followed by the bemused stares of his team, to meet the Doctor before he set off again.
The Doctor opened the doors of the TARDIS onto sunshine, not knowing where to look for Jack. He didn't even know where Torchwood three was, apart from the obvious "In Cardiff".
He didn't have to look far though, as Jack raced towards him, drawing to a halt as he reached the TARDIS.
"Hello again Jack" the Doctor said sadly.
"Doctor? Is something wrong?" Jack asked, excitement at seeing the Doctor disappearing as he noticed his friend's depression.
"Nothing. Nothing at all." The Doctor shook his head and then grinned, but it was only an echo of his usual smile.
Jack decided not to pursue it as a redhead came out of the TARDIS. "Doctor? Where are we?" She asked. Then, noticing Jack, she added "And who's he?"
Jack smiled at her. "Captain Jack Harkness. We're in Cardiff. And who might you be?"
The Doctor just looked at Jack "Stop it!" He said sharply, and Jack grinned, knowing his flirting had annoyed the Doctor so much he was acting normal. Well, almost normal.
" I was only saying hello!" he protested, still grinning, as Donna laughed. Then she looked at Jack. "My name's Donna. How do you know the Doctor?"
Jack, not bothering to be tactful, simply said "Oh, I met him and this girl he travelled with, Rose, in 1940's London. Rose was hanging from a barrage balloon in the middle of a bomb raid and I saved her. Then she and the Doctor saved me from sacrificing myself for the good of the universe, but we still saved everyone. I travelled with them for a while, but they abandoned me (well, the Doctor did, Rose thought I was dead) in the far future. Rose had used the time vortex to make me immortal and so I used my vortex manipulator to take me to the Middle Ages. Then I met up with the Doctor again when he was travelling with Martha. I got tortured, killed about 50 times, and then eventually helped save the world. But Martha was the one who really saved everyone. Not me, not the Doctor-Martha." Jack finished and noticed, much to his pleasure, that Donna was staring at him in amazement.
"You could have just said you travelled with him, mate." She scolded him, knowing straight away that he was the type of man who flirted with anything that moved.
Jack just carried on grinning, unfazed.
"So, you wanna come meet my team then?" he asked the two cheerfully. Donna shrugged but the Doctor hesitated. "They're Torchwood, Jack." He said quietly.
Jack didn't realise what the problem was. "Yeah, so am i. So what? They're not the ones who were behind Canary Wharf! I rebuilt this Torchwood! Sure it was like that at first, but I've changed it Doctor! I told you that!" He was starting to get angry. He wanted the Doctor to meet his team. To understand why he'd decided to stay on Earth. He knew that if the Doctor actually met them he'd probably like them!
"That's not the only reason." The doctor said reluctantly.
"What's the other reason then?" Jack asked, slightly angry but mostly resigned and curious. "Well…" The Doctor began, before hesitating. He cleared his throat and began again. "Well, they might want to kill me!" He said all in a rush.
Jack laughed at him. "Doctor, I rebuilt it. Even if that's what Queen Victoria created Torchwood for, its different now. We don't kill, we try and help, and we most certainly are not going to even try and kill you!"
The Doctor half smiled. "Alright then. But if I have to regenerate again…." Jack smiled, but the Doctor was lost in a train of thought, thinking of Jenny and wishing she'd regenerated.
He didn't even notice they'd arrived at the hub until a suspicious voice asked "Who are these, Jack?" He looked up and saw an Asian girl. He frowned, thinking he recognised her. Suddenly it snapped "Toshiko Sato! From the hospital!" Toshiko frowned. "Who are you? I've never seen you before in my life! You remind me of someone I met in a hospital, but you look nothing like him! Who are you?" she demanded.
"I'm the Doctor, and this is Donna. We're time travellers. I'm the person who this organisation was set up to kill. I have the ability to change my face if I' near death in order to survive. I met you in a hospital when the spaceship crashed into Big Ben and there was a little alien pig running around in a spacesuit. I had big ears, a northern accent, leather Jacket…Is that the man I reminded you of?" He grinned at her. The rest of the Torchwood team had been listening to his little speech and they were all speechless. Owen broke the silence.
"If you're the Doctor you must be dangerous! Queen Victoria would never have set up an organisation against someone who wasn't!" He looked at the others to see what they would do.
The Doctor looked at him. "First, I saved her life and she knighted me before banishing me forever from the British Empire. Second, Queen Victoria was a werewolf."
While Owen tried to process this new piece of information, the Doctor was introducing himself to the rest of the team properly.
Once the introductions were over, he grinned "So, any chance of some tea?"
The Doctor had to settle for some of Ianto's coffee, but he did admit it was the best he had ever tasted. It just wasn't as good as tea.
Tosh was getting on with the Doctor quite well, and eventually asked him if he could help identify some technology they'd found. The two geniuses left together.
Once Jack was sure they were out of earshot, he asked Donna to come with him.
She glared. "You dare try anything, pretty boy, and you'll wish you'd never been born!" Gwen had to stifle her laughter as she realised Jack had finally met his match.
Jack actually apologised! "No, no, I didn't mean that! I just wanted to ask you about the Doctor!" He told her hurriedly.
Donna sniffed. "Alright. But you try anything and I'll kick you to Volagnoc!"
Gwen couldn't contain her laughter for much longer, and as soon as Jack and Donna had left the room it burst out and the others quickly joined in.
Finally someone who could put Jack in his place!
Donna followed Jack into an empty room and sat down. She waited for Jack to begin.
"So…" Jack started, clearing his throat. "What's wrong with the Doctor?"
Donna was hesitant. "I don't know if I should tell you that." She said firmly. But Jack persisted.
By the end of an hour she'd explained everything to him. How the TARDIS had taken them to Messaline. Hoe they'd stolen his DNA. How Jenny had been created. How she'd got her name. How Jenny had two hearts, just like the Doctor. How Jenny had flipped over the lasers. How they'd reached the ship and realised what it was. How she'd worked out that the war had only lasted seven days. How the Doctor had made all the soldiers drop their guns-except one. How he'd smashed the terraforming device to the floor. How Jenny had seen the man about to shoot at him. How she'd moved in front. How devastated the Doctor had been as his daughter died in his arms. How she hadn't regenerated. How they'd left, the Doctor unable to bear waiting for the funeral.
Jack was shocked. He felt sorry fro the Doctor, going through all that. Especially as, once again, for a moment he hadn't been the last and it had all been snatched away.
But he only had one question. "But why didn't he go to her funeral?"
And the Doctor, who had been listening for at least half an hour after identifying the object as a Compression field from Raxocoricofallapatorias, Felt Jack's question hit him like a blow.
Why hadn't he gone to her funeral? She was his daughter, and he hadn't even waited for her funeral.
And he knew what he had to do.
He raced back to the TARDIS. Donna would be alright for a few hours. He ran inside and started setting the coordinates for the Planet Messaline.
After a short trip he arrived. He walked slowly out side to see a hath and that soldier, the one Jenny had distracted with a kiss, staring at him. He started speaking. "I came for Jenny's funeral." They just stared.
"You said you were having her funeral! Where is it? Why aren't you there? Take me there!" He said firmly.
The soldier hesitantly spoke up. "Jenny's gone."
The Doctor felt a lump in his throat. "What do you mean? She's dead." He asked them, worried.
The soldier continued slowly. "Well, she was. But then there was this golden stuff coming out of her mouth and-!" The Doctor interrupted him.
"She changed? Did she change?" The soldier shook his head.
"No. She stayed the same, but she woke up. She came back to life. She stole the space shuttle and just left." Seeing the Doctor's thunderous face, the soldier stepped back. But he didn't do anything.
The Doctor was thinking. He was angry with Martha for convincing him to leave. He was angry with Donna for letting him leave. He was angry with Jenny for jumping in front of him.
But most of all he was angry at himself, for giving up, for being stupid, for just leaving her.
And without saying another word he turned and walked back to the TARDIS.
Back in the Torchwood hub Donna was getting worried. The Doctor was gone. She was a little scared when she realised that the Doctor had left her there, but the others had convinced her he'd come back.
But it had been a week and there'd been no sign of him. She'd been staying with Tosh and helping at Torchwood, but inside she was terrified that the Doctor had forgotten her. She knew if she had to wait any longer she'd either die or just give up and go home.
She was just feeding the pterodactyl, which for the life of her she couldn't remember the impossible to pronounce name of, when she heard a familiar sound from behind her.
At first she thought she was imagining it, but as it became louder she raced towards the sound.
She got into the main room just in time to see the TARDIS doors open and the Doctor step out. She was too angry with him to notice how upset and yet happy he looked.
"You do realise I've been stuck here for a week?? Where in the universe did you go? And if its such a brilliant time machine, why didn't you come back straight after you left, Doctor? You do realise I'd just about given up and decided to go home?? Where would you have been then, spaceman?" She shouted at him. He was staring into space, not having heard a word of her rant.
"Donna…Jenny's alive. And we have to find her."